An intimate portrayal

At best, documentaries on celebrities tend to be an ode to their stardom; at worst, these end up as an exercise in image makeover for those who have fallen from grace. Rare is a documentary, especially of a living person, that dares to look truth in the eye and provides a balanced, insightful account. Is Sikhya entertainment’s Netflix film that endeavour? Maybe yes, maybe no, but while documenting the story of Punjabi singer Yo Yo Honey Singh, who has seen both dizzying heights of fame and the lows of infamy, director Mozez Singh does address the elephant in Honey’s life from the word go.

After a brief flashback to his younger years, we see news channels screaming murder of decency in his songs. If memory doesn’t serve you right, let us remind you that Honey Singh was a musical phenomenon more than a decade ago. Concerts, movies, reality shows, he was everywhere. And then in 2012, the horrific Nirbhaya incident happened. Social post-mortem pointed fingers at Punjabi singers and their obscene lyrics, with sexual violence as its subtext. Honey Singh was the first in the firing line. Songs like ‘Main Hoon Balatkari’ were attributed to him, a charge he denied back then and still does. Honey Singh may not own up two particularly awfully lewd songs, yet, there is much that he reveals.

For years, Honey had disappeared from the scene. He talks about his mental health condition in those years of oblivion. Indeed, it takes more than gumption to let audiences into the dark recesses of your mind, talk of your bipolar disorder, break down in front of the camera and share your vulnerabilities. Much of his defence is fielded by his sister Sneha. However, it’s the reticent father’s expressions which speak volumes, providing a window into the trauma the family underwent. Honey’s fragility comes across.

One could argue that the documentary doesn’t answer all niggling queries, especially about drug addiction (he has spoken more openly about it in talk shows). However, he does confess how he would smoke 20 joints in a day, and would not want to fall into the loop of drugs, alcohol and overwork again. At the end of the day, the 80-minute docu-film is not meant to crucify him, but give him a voice. It marks his courage to climb the ladder of success once again, but with a dash of scepticism. As a music lover wonders aloud: he climbed the ladder and came down. Can he reach the top again?

Apart from baring Honey the person, Mozez scores in factoring in divergent views. When the good old argument, ‘this is what the audience wants’, surfaces as an alibi for the socially inappropriate messaging in his songs, the opinion of a journalist, ‘is he an artist or a supplier’, is on point. How Honey may not be as relevant to the millennial slips inadvertently in a model’s indiscretion during the shoot of his second comeback song, ‘Designer’. As she confuses his popular song ‘Brown Rang’ for AP Dhillon’s ‘Brown Munde’, the subtle hint is clear: here is the original singer who made brown trend, as also that audiences have moved on.

Yet, Honey, who at the time of making of the documentary was and probably still is on medication, is in the reckoning. Where will he go in his second innings is hard to say as other Punjabi singers have moved into the space he created. In ‘Designer’, he has even collaborated with one of them, Guru Randhawa. Apart from Guru, singer Jazzy B, too, is seen in the film. He rightly says, “It’s easy to criticise artists.” And it’s as easy for artists to fall into the trap that fame and money brings. ‘Yo Yo Honey Singh: Famous’ may not have been designed as an outright cautionary tale or a penetrating anatomy of fame, but it is an honest account where an unfiltered Honey sets you thinking. You empathise, but not in a tear-jerking fashion.

In case you are wondering why he deserves a documentary and have forgotten his chartbusters, this is a quick check on his innumerable memorable hits too. In that light, if the words ‘he moved the cultural gravity of pop music’ do not sound off-key, nor does the raw and intimate documentary.